Ingredients for six people

One pound of rice.Italians distinguish many varieties of rice. For
risotto you need the one called "arborio" (second-best, the one called
"vialone." Any other variety will cause poor results. In practice, you
need white rice with big, egg-shaped grains and a lot of starch.
Low-starch rice is good for rice soups, not risotto. You can tell the
amount of starch by looking at a grain: there should be a whiter spot in
the middle. Risotto rice has a rather large whiter spot.

Five oz. of butter.

Three oz. of grated parmesan cheese.Please, grate it yourself and don't trust the already-grated stuff.

Half a teaspoonful of saffron powder.

Half an onion.

Two pints of veal broth.

A glass of white wine.(if you want to be really traditional, add one oz. of beef spinal marrow)

Salt, pepper, parsley

Preparation

Put three oz. of butter in a pot, together with the minced onion and let it
slightly fry till the butter is molten but the onion begins to change color
(the heat has to be very low). If you add beef marrow, put it in now. Put
the rice in and, stirring continuously, let it toast for a couple of
minutes, then add salt and saffron and a half a glass of white wine.

When
everything has been absorbed (the saffron may not be uniformly distributed
by now), add the broth (you have made - or rewarmed - it in another
pot. It has to be hot). Definitely increase the heat (if you use an
electric stove you should have increased it before so that it is now hot.
Italian cuisine is simply not really possible with electric stoves, which
are very much disliked among Italians, but anyhow...) Don't give up
stirring! Now the saffron has to be uniformly distributed and the whole
should be bright yellow. If the rice becomes too dry, add more broth and
keep stirring.

After approximately twenty minutes, add the rest of the
wine and remove the pot from the fire/source of heat. Now for the
difficult part: you have to add the rest of the butter and the grated
parmesan cheese so that the final texture is "just right": this means, it
has to be definitely not a mush, but the individual grains should be linked
together... well this is achieved by adding some parmesan, then some
butter, then some parmesan again and so on. Tradition says that you have
to draw exactly 36 circles while stirring in this phase (which is called
"mantecatura," by the way).

You may then add pepper and embellish the whole with parsley. It has to
look as a big yellow mountain when you serve it. eating, every guest can
add more parmesan (or salt, or pepper) according to their taste.